Predictable and Disastrous Belief in Magic
Excerpt from “Why Knot?” Buy the book at Amazon
When we see history repeat itself disastrously within the same culture, we presume that people failed to learn from the lessons of the past. And when we see similar disastrous events unfold in different cultures, we look for contacts between the cultures, as if the penchant for mass self-destructive behavior were a contagious disease; and without contact, the copycat events would not have occurred.
But sometimes similar outlandish and awful events occur independently, in cultures isolated from one another. Analysis of such incidents might reveal principles of human nature — not commonality of dreams and neuroses due to the collective unconscious, but rather predictable rules of human behavior that could guide international relations and public policy.
One such constellation of horrendous events occurred during the late 19th century: the Zulus in the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879 in South Africa, the rebel forces of the Mahdi of 1881–82 in the Sudan, the Ghost Dancers of 1888–92 in the American Northwest, and the Boxers of 1897–1901 in China. In all four cases, native peoples rose up against far more powerful, technologically advanced foreigners. The native culture was about to be obliterated economically as well as militarily. Their traditional way of life was no longer viable. Everything they had believed in was being undermined daily by these foreigners, who were already in control. The situation was hopeless. Then, spontaneously, in all four unconnected instances, mobs of natives, with or without leaders, attacked the foreigners, believing that supernatural salvation was imminent and that by ritual and magic they could make themselves invulnerable to the foreigners’ bullets.
